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A review by mediabaron
Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
2.0
A good job digging up a lot of information, some errors as other reviews have noted. I would recommend against listening to the audiobook as the author mangles numerous pronunciations that should have been caught with a decent editor from Hawaii who would be familiar with all the names and places on the ear.
Erratum: The Captain Cook Monument site in Kealakekua Bay was set up by Australia, not the British. See below about the myth of British soil at the monument. I visited the monument with my friend Dawn, I have been there several times and lived near there as the Mynah Bird flies.
A plaque next to the monument reads, “THIS JETTY WAS ERECTED BY THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK R.N. THE DISCOVERER OF BOTH AUSTRALIA AND THESE ISLANDS”
Of course we know there were people living in what is now known as Australia and Hawaii before Cook arrived so he didn’t ‘discover’ both places.
“Is the land on which the Captain Cook Monument sits sovereign British land?
Short answer about the monument being on British soil – NO.
Longer answer – National Historic Register shows land in the Kealakekua Bay Historical District is owned by the State and Private ownership. So this was not a definitive answer so I contacted the Kona Historical Society. Land was given by Cleghorn and Likelike to Major James Hay Wodehouse, “and his heirs and assigns In Trust however for the following uses and purposes and for none other that is to say in trust to keep and maintain on granted premises a monument in memory of Captain Cook…” Per the deed of conveyance (copy held at the Kona Historical Society.
Even Longer answer – There is no record showing that Wodehouse or his heirs ever gave the land to the British Government. So the land is still owned by his heirs and with current international laws the British Government can not obtain title to the land.
How did this rumor start?? Seems that the Tax assessor sent the King of England a notice of Real Property Assessment back in 1938. Subsequently, a letter of apology was sent from the Board of Tax Commissioners, Third Taxation Division.
This information is from a copy of a letter to the editor of the Tribune Herald who ran the story, I suspect in November of 1954 (but that is my guess based on the letter.)
That’s it. No British soil in Kealakekua Bay. Mystery solved thanks to the Archivist at the Kona Historical Society.
— Dawn”
Erratum: The Captain Cook Monument site in Kealakekua Bay was set up by Australia, not the British. See below about the myth of British soil at the monument. I visited the monument with my friend Dawn, I have been there several times and lived near there as the Mynah Bird flies.
A plaque next to the monument reads, “THIS JETTY WAS ERECTED BY THE COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA IN MEMORY OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK R.N. THE DISCOVERER OF BOTH AUSTRALIA AND THESE ISLANDS”
Of course we know there were people living in what is now known as Australia and Hawaii before Cook arrived so he didn’t ‘discover’ both places.
“Is the land on which the Captain Cook Monument sits sovereign British land?
Short answer about the monument being on British soil – NO.
Longer answer – National Historic Register shows land in the Kealakekua Bay Historical District is owned by the State and Private ownership. So this was not a definitive answer so I contacted the Kona Historical Society. Land was given by Cleghorn and Likelike to Major James Hay Wodehouse, “and his heirs and assigns In Trust however for the following uses and purposes and for none other that is to say in trust to keep and maintain on granted premises a monument in memory of Captain Cook…” Per the deed of conveyance (copy held at the Kona Historical Society.
Even Longer answer – There is no record showing that Wodehouse or his heirs ever gave the land to the British Government. So the land is still owned by his heirs and with current international laws the British Government can not obtain title to the land.
How did this rumor start?? Seems that the Tax assessor sent the King of England a notice of Real Property Assessment back in 1938. Subsequently, a letter of apology was sent from the Board of Tax Commissioners, Third Taxation Division.
This information is from a copy of a letter to the editor of the Tribune Herald who ran the story, I suspect in November of 1954 (but that is my guess based on the letter.)
That’s it. No British soil in Kealakekua Bay. Mystery solved thanks to the Archivist at the Kona Historical Society.
— Dawn”